Helene WONG

Helene WONG is a character with a wide range of professional experience in her life-long career. She is an actor, director, film critic and author. Her 2016 book Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story reveals the ambivalence of her Chineseness in a Western society.

I posed her portrait as an actress and set up a staged situation with a vibrant Chinese colour flower-patterned linen cloth from the 1960s as the background, purposely showing the studio lighting. I asked her to wear her mum’s Chinese wedding dress and to ‘perform’ her feeling and memory about her own wedding. Through her gesture, the recalled moment is delicate, intricate and ineffable; private is made public — a collective ambivalent emotion of a woman on her wedding day.

In the photograph of objects from the family, I borrowed the Western chairs of the 1960s from David Yan to match up with the similar era of Helene’s portrait. Her mum’s hand-embroidered baby carrier ties the portrait of her parents with Helene’s book, another form of the family portrait.

King Tong HO

2018

黄喜莲

黄喜莲的事业范围广濶，专业经验丰富。她是一位演员、导演、电影评论员及作家。出版于二零一六年的 Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story 揭示她作为华裔在西方社会所面对的矛盾。

替她拍摄肖像时，她扮作演员; 我刻意选用影楼灯光，及以六十年代中式花布，营造一个充满活力的舞台背景。我请她穿着母亲结婚时的中式礼服，「扮演」回忆自己婚礼时的感受。透过姿态，唤起的往昔，是既精致、复杂和不可言喻的，公开了妇女在新婚日子的隐密复杂感情。

拍摄家庭物件的照片时，我借用了属于甄福沾的六十年代西式椅，以配合黄喜莲肖像的仿似年代，把她母亲用的婴儿背带、连结着她双亲的合照和黄喜莲的著作，以另一种方式表达家庭照。

何经棠

2018

黄喜蓮

黄喜蓮的事業範圍廣濶，專業經驗豐富。她是一位演員、導演、電影評論員及作家。出版於二零一六年的 Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story 揭示她作為華裔在西方社會所面對的矛盾。

替她拍攝肖像時，她扮作演員; 我刻意選用影樓燈光，及以六十年代中式花布，營造一個充滿活力的舞臺背景。我請她穿著母親結婚時的中式禮服，「扮演」回憶自己婚禮時的感受。透過姿態，喚起的往昔，是既精緻、複雜和不可言喻的，公開了婦女在新婚日子的隱密複雜感情。

拍攝家庭物件的照片時，我借用了屬於甄福沾的六十年代西式椅，以配合黄喜蓮肖像的仿似年代，把她母親用的嬰兒背帶、連結着她雙親的合照和黄喜蓮的著作，以另一種方式表達家庭照。

何經棠

2018